Faculty members are listed by their legal names on EagleApps, resulting in some transgender faculty being identified by names they no longer use.

“The system right now is that the old name is the name that appears on things like EagleApps, which is pretty public,” said Maia McAleavey, an associate professor of English and director of the English literature core. 

Boston College currently requires a legal name change for updates to official University documents and reports, as well as community-facing platforms like EagleApps and course evaluations—a policy McAleavey says can cause confusion. 

“There are lots of instances where, when students register for a course, they could be seeing the wrong name when it comes time to fill out course evaluations—they can be seeing the deadname—and it’s honestly just confusing,” McAleavey said. 

McAleavey noted that the current political climate in the country has increased the risk of obtaining a name change, leading some people to delay pursuing one legally. 

“The climate right now means that … there are risks in making a legal name change, and there could be lots of reasons to want to name change, even before the full legal process comes through,” McAleavey said. 

Julie Gagnon, co-chair of LGBT@BC, a community engagement group for LGBTQ+ faculty and staff, found out about this ongoing deadnaming issue—which occurs when transgender people are called names they no longer use—at a recent membership meeting, which prompted her to reach out to the Office of the Provost. 

“We feel this should be something that is easy to address and would have a meaningful, positive impact for the faculty members affected,” Gagnon wrote in a statement to The Heights. 

Vice Provost of Faculties Billy Soo said that while he has not had a faculty member directly reach out to ask him about changing their name, he is looking into changing the legal name requirement currently in place.

“We could make it possible for faculty members to add a ‘preferred name’ to EagleApps,” Soo wrote in a statement to The Heights. “Their official names would still be used in all University official records such as on transcripts and course evaluations. Faculty can, of course, always change their names legally, which would then apply in all settings.” 

The current lack of consistency between EagleApps and other platforms like Canvas, which allow users’ to display their preferred name, could create an awkward situation, McAleavey said. 

“I also think it sets up a dynamic that could be uncomfortable, actually, for everybody involved, for all the students, for the instructor,” McAleavey said. “This seems like something that we could and should fix, and that doesn’t actually have to be a big political fight.”